lostcarnival | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Koel and OPEN
When: The Day 72/Evening of Day 72
Where: The cookhouse
What: Food, and also Vampires Anonymous
Warnings: Discussion of vampires and blood and flesh and eating/drinking them and related topics.

Freeing

[Once Day 72 dawns, Koel is doing much better. The care, the potions, the treatment, was finally working. The iron injuries still burned, and she still limped, but her strength was returning, and her voice actually sounded like hers.

So, before feeding times, she gets to work. She knows what she needs to do, and those who are in the cookhouse will find Koel coming to them, giving them instructions on cooking...alternative foods.]

Feeding

[Those who come to eat breakfast (menemen, a breakfast soup), lunch (nice and meaty gyros), or dinner (churrasco-style picanha cut meat with two slices of pa amb tomàquet) will also find a notice on the doors of the cookhouse.]

ATTN: VAMPIRE CARNIVAL WORKERS
If you are a vampire, please do not hesitate to request the chefs on duty for a dish suited to your current dietary needs. The Cookhouse is prepared and will fulfill them for as long as you require.

- K. Babic
Head Chef

[There's another, smaller notice on the door as well.]

VAMPIRES ANONYMOUS
If you are a vampire, there will be a meeting one hour after dinner hours have finished in the Cookhouse. It is being hosted by a carnival member with prior experience in dealing with vampire and vampire-like individuals. Please feel free to join - this is intended to be a space where you may freely discuss with others that share your new condition without judgement.

Refreshments will be provided.

[Those who come into the cookhouse and request the alternative food will find...food very much like that which is being served. But with differences. The red sauces, spices, broths and spreads used are bloody, and the meat is definitely not chicken or beef.]

Feeling

[And, that evening, there is Koel, sitting patiently, wings carefully folded behind her chair. The corner of the Cookhouse mess hall that she is sitting in has one of the tables, with some finger food and some drinks. All of it vampire-friendly.

Welcome to Vampires' Anonymous. Apparently Koel has experience with this.]

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Jimmy read the notice on the doors with more than a little concern. He's pretty sure that he's the only kitchen staff member that isn't a vampire or have some other form of defense available. (Tasting like 'guilt and God' offers only so much protection.) He knows Koel won't put him on the menu, but serving up Soylent Green is something he kind of has a problem with. (It doesn't matter if he knew the guy or not. It's the principle of the thing.)

"Koel? Can... Can we talk?" Jimmy's a little nervous as he looks at his boss. "I'm... I saw the note, and I was wondering. Can I change my schedule around to just solo prep work until the vampires get treated? And to work with just regular food, instead of the..... more unique dietary requirements?" It probably is a little racist, but Jimmy is painfully aware of how defenseless he is, and he'd rather not tempt fate if he can help it.

"Hm?" Koel was at one of the stoves, soup smell in the air, and she turned to look at him. Her expression was unreadable, but deep down, she felt worry. "May I ask why, if its not a reason off-limits?"

She had a feeling she knew why. Why else would a human ask to not serve vampires, if there wasn't fear?

Yeah. It's fear. Jimmy's all kinds of nervous just standing in the kitchen with Koel. "For the latter, I understand that we need to accommodate everybody. And for the vampires, that means blood. And I know that there is zero chance I knew who they were, but I'm not comfortable with preparing and serving food made from people."

"As for the shift changes? I'm.... I don't feel safe working with and around vampires." He winces, knowing how it sounds. "And if it's possible, I'd like to have my shift changed."

Koel is silent, at this. Koel takes a deep breath, quietly steeling herself to respond.

"I must admit, it will be very difficult to accommodate this, as there aren't many under me right now and we do have quite a few workers who've been turned. Some in this department." There was a lump in her throat. "Listen - I need to figure out how to sort your request out. If you can give me a day, I will have something sorted out for you."

Another pause.

"You don't need to worry about today, in the meantime. Consider it a day off, for you."

Jimmy winces. "I'm.... I'm sorry that my personal hangups have forced this on you, and thank you for trying to accommodate me about this." He sighs, trying to get his thoughts in something resembling order. Except that between the attack and Castiel's arrival, they really aren't. The vampires on staff and the human additions to the dining options were just the last straw.

[Sora will be the first to tell you he doesn't know what he's doing a lot of the time. But now, more than ever, he feels a little lost, and not sure of what to do with himself. Back home, there was always something to do, some new adventure to go on, some way to take his mind off of things, but here, he just feels... stuck. For the first time, he feels unhappy at the carnival.

But that doesn't sit right with him, and Sora doesn't have it in him to just sit by and do nothing. So, seeing the sign, he decides to follow it. Maybe just talking to someone could help.

He's not sure what he expected to find here, but it looks a little like a therapy session. Still, he's willing to give it a shot, so he sits down in one of the chairs, setting his folded umbrella next to him, and smiles at anyone who'll give him the time of day.]

Heya!

"Good evening." Koel nodded to him with a smile. She could sense his reticence, along with the beast in him. "I hope you're feeling all right? Well. As all right as one can be."

"Yes, ma'am, I'm okay," Sora replies, smile widening, and chuckles at the joke. "I, um... I saw the sign. On the door. About the meeting."

"Good, good." Koel closes her eyes. "I assume, then, that you are among the new vampires. Hopefully, I can be of some assistance."

"Yeah. I mean, yeah, I am," Sora says awkwardly. If his nervousness wasn't apparent before, it probably is now. "I... don't really know what to do about it."

"Well..." Koel closes her eyes. "The very first thing I'd recommend, is to relax. Try to keep a clear mind. Take some deep breaths."

Even if, being the dead kind of vampire, that last one sounded ridiculous. She knows it does.

"And...don't deprive yourself."

Sora closes his eyes, and tries his best to follow the instructions. He's been breathing out of habit thus far, but consciously breathing is weird when you don't actually need air to live. He doesn't open his eyes again until Koel speaks again.

"Deprive... myself?"

"Correct." Koel nodded quietly. "Eating and drinking properly, as a vampire. Not doing that will only make keeping control in the long run more difficult."

"You mean like, blood?" Sora makes a face at that, but honestly, he's been drinking blood regularly since he got back. He hates that he likes it so much.

"Yes. Blood, bloodied flesh, whatever sates your hunger." Koel quietly nodded again. "I know the Ringmaster has plans for helping to exorcise vampirism. However, you must make for the possibility that this isn't temporary, as well."

Sora pales at this, which is a feat considering how pale he already is right now.

"You mean... it might never go away?"

He's not sure he could deal with that. Knowing the situation is temporary is one thing, but... Let's just say he never wanted his fangs to actually be useable.

"It may not." Ah, that fear. It was...well. He's just a kid. Its absolutely understandable. "And if that is what happens? You must consider what you will do."

She speaks gently, but firmly. Not that she didn't have faith in the Ringmaster, but stranger things have happened, after all.

"I... I don't know."

He looks down at his lap and sighs. He misses the sun. And real food. He misses being alive. What would he do, if it was gone forever? He can't even fathom it, let alone be faced with the very real possibility of it.

"..."

If Sora will let her, she will offer a hug for him. He definitely needed it.

He will absolutely take that hug, because he absolutely does need it. It's unlike him, to be so down on himself, but the situation is something he's never encountered before. A hug would be great.

[The evening of day 72, Yuugi steps into the kitchens, having finally decided that it wasn't doing him any good sticking to the trailer and the lake. He had to try to eat something at some point, preferably before he attacked any of his fellow carnival jockies, and so when he comes upon the notices on the doors of the cookhouse, hood drawn up over his head to avoid the setting sun, he paused.

It hadn't occurred to him that he might have different dietary requirements for the meantime. The Ringmaster's meditation class hadn't really helped him in chasing the demon out, so for now he was stuck with it. The pit had been full of other vampires - full of food, is the unbidden thought - and he pauses, then opens the door. Yuugi had somehow timed his visit to the cookhouse when there was either nobody around or people were beginning to retire for the night, tugging his hood down and his ears perking up. His stomach growled at him, earning a look from someone leaving, and he walked through the cookhouse, tense.]

Ah, Koel-san. Hello.

[Joker enters Vampires Anonymous much as he does with most of life: with way more drama than is god damn necessary.]

[That's why his first words through the doors are loud and to the point: ]

KOEL! You're a bleedin' saint and a scholar, they outta make a statue of you.

[He noticed the vamp-friendly food. In case it wasn't obvious.]

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